1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to compatibility checking in computing systems, and more specifically to determining compatibility of an application with different versions of an operating system.
2. Related Art
Operating systems generally refer to programs that control access to various hardware resources present in a computing system. An operating system typically provides various interfaces (typically as libraries, functions, etc.), which are invoked by the applications that may share the hardware resources. Operating systems are typically loaded and executed soon after the corresponding computing systems are booted (powered on). The operating systems thereafter provide a run-time environment in which different applications can be executed.
Several versions of a same operating system (OS) often exist. Typically, a newer version of an OS is designed to provide more functionality (or for other reasons, such as fixing known bugs, enhanced resource usage efficiency, etc.), compared to a older version. In such newer versions, the interfaces and other utilities (e.g., directory structure, fonts, etc.) provided to applications, may differ from those provided by other (e.g., older) versions of the OS. In general, a utility refers to any facility provided by the OS to the applications for coordinating usage of hardware resources, organization of data according to pre-defined conventions, etc.
Hence, a same application designed for proper operation with one version of an operating system may not operate properly (i.e., may not be compatible) with another version of the operating system. Determination of compatibility of an application with different versions of an operating system is therefore desirable. For example, application vendors would benefit from information on changes required in their applications to ensure proper operation on a newer version of an OS.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.